Every spring when I get my 66 Chevelle out, I fire it up and the starter gear squeals and rubs on the flywheel. Last year I put a spacer shim that came with the starter in between the nose and the body of the starter and it somewhat fixed the problem. Now it's doing it again and worse. The starter is a mini, with universal mounting holes. I have a TH350 trans. There isn't much runout on the flywheel. I have 2 starter shims in as well. I was thinking about adding some extra washers where I added the shim last year. I will pull it today and see what happens. Also, the starter gear sounds like it is missing the flywheel gear a lot of times when I crank it over. You know that grinding noise.

Originally posted by chevydog66:
Every spring when I get my 66 Chevelle out, I fire it up and the starter gear squeals and rubs on the flywheel, while the motor is runing. Last year I put a spacer shim that came with the starter in between the nose and the body of the starter and it somewhat fixed the problem. Now it's doing it again and worse. The starter is a mini, with universal mounting holes. I have a TH350 trans. There isn't much runout on the flywheel. I have 2 starter shims in as well. I was thinking about adding some extra washers where I added the shim last year. I will pull it today and see what happens. Also, the starter gear sounds like it is missing the flywheel gear a lot of times when I crank it over. You know that grinding noise.

On my mini starter I had to shim the starter motor from the mounting block. That is the shims went between the mounting block and the motor to move the motor/gear assembly forward, away from the flexplate. The first engine the starter was on did not require this but the second engine did. I suspect the mounting holes in the engine block were in slightly different locations.

**** KIT FROM LCOAL AUTO PARTS STORE 5 BUCKS

I fixed it. I just installed 2 washers between the starter mounting block and the starter housing. Like I said I have already installed the shim that came with it but it was still grinding on the flywheel. I just hope that the washers will hold up over time.